Happy belated b-day Miguel ✨
¡Felices Fiestas Patrias atrasadas! Te amo Perú♥
Tag: hetalia
¡Felices Fiestas Patrias! Te amo Perú❤
My Take on the DeValier Issue
Look, so, I know that no one really asked for my opinion on this, but I’m going to say it anyway.
I will admit, that even though I dislike his style and characterization, I am a bit jealous of George DeValier. I’m jealous because he’s been on permanent hiatus for years now, and was when I joined the fandom in the sixth grade, yet he still gets more attention than what my multi-chapter gets after I work on it for months.
And I guarantee you that DeValier worked just as hard as I do on his works, and I can’t- and won’t- force anyone to read my stuff. And reading @basement-prussia and @lluviadinoche s’ posts made me realize that, yeah, I am a bit angry about the fact that he’s idolized, but that isn’t the point.
The point is, we can’t deny the fact that DeValier brought a shit-ton of activity to the fandom. I’m not saying that anyone has said that he hasn’t, I just haven’t seen it mentioned yet. Scroll down through his tag, and you’ll see so much art and edits based off of his work. Even now, I’m seeing fanfiction where the author says that the fic was inspired by his work. And that’s great!
Hell, it took me three tries to get through the first quarter of the fic, but even that had me thinking, “Hey! I could totally do this!”
So, yeah. Am I over the fact that his work has cast a big shadow over other writers in the fandom? Absolutely. Do I cringe whenever I see one of those “when will DeValier return from the war” memes (y’all have fun, it’s just not for me)? Yes. But this guy has contributed a lot to the fandom, mostly unintentionally, and is still contributing to this day, so I think that we should be at least a little grateful for that.
this is a good take on it, very nuanced, & i think that’s appropriate since this is a kind of nuanced issue. yes, it’s annoying that his work has cast such a shadow over all the newer works, but at the same time, he didn’t ask to be popular, and can we really fault him for being popular any more than we can fault any other author for the same?
imo, the responsibility for the issue lies with the fandom. guys, again, if you want new authors to get recognition, you have to pitch in! dont just talk about it and self-promo your own works, check out others’ writing as well, and comment, and share it.
I am in the Not a Fan boat but I just wanted to say this…Absolutely no one should feel overshadowed by DeValier, they are not even RELEVANT anymore so it BLOWS my mind this conversation is even happening with how absolutely and utterly outdated they are. They were writing HUGELY popular pairings in cheesy romance drama angst stories at the HEIGHT of the hetalia fandom when the majority of us were young and dumb kids with no tastes. They were writing at a time when the hetalia fandom was extremely centralized in just a few locations, where literally you knew almost everyone and everything happening and everything being drawn and written all at the same time. DeValier pandered a lot, Networked a lot, and simply had the luck of being in the right place, at the right time during an entirely different fandom culture and fandom space. Even if things are harder now, they’re not impossible. Unfortunately, we’ve lost that Hive sort of fandom culture because of tumblr’s independent blog format and the fact that fandom has shifted away from comment/fanfic culture, but like Apollon-hyakinthios is saying, it’s a team effort. You gotta give love to get love sometimes.
let him go
“Every time you kiss me, it feels like you’re holding your breath,” Alfred says. His voice is shaky and Arthur glances up from his cup of tea. “Like you’re bracing yourself.”
“I’ve never really been a good kisser.” Is Arthur’s response. He snorts, lightheartedly. Alfred doesn’t return his smile. Arthur clears his throat. “Do you mind picking up some milk next time you get the groceries? We’re running awfully low-”
“I need to have this conversation,” Alfred says. He’s looking at Arthur with those steely blue eyes and Arthur can barely hold contact. Alfred’s hand is on his chin when he averts his eyes back into his teacup, tilting his head back up almost forcefully. Arthur’s gasp is quiet. “Please. Please, just look at me. Just talk to me.” Alfred’s desperate, it seems. “It’s been months since I’ve…” His grip softens. That warm tanned hand of his takes to cradling the side of Arthur’s face and Arthur flinches away, just momentarily, before a look of hurt flashes across Alfred’s face and Arthur stills. “I told you I loved you three months ago and you haven’t said it back. It’s not that you have to, you don’t have to, but I just… I wish you’d just talk to me. I keep bringing it up but you always deflect me, and… I wish we could talk about it. Arthur. Do you love me?”
Arthur lies. He wishes he didn’t. “I don’t know.”
Alfred sighs. It’s pained, but he seems relieved. “That’s okay. There’s no pressure. You know I’d never pressure you into anything, Artie.”
Arthur’s chest burns. In the metaphoric sense, of course, because physically, he’s perfectly fine. Alfred’s attempting to chip at the concrete exterior of Arthur’s heart and the shrapnel’s embedding into Arthur’s chest, so it burns. But he’s physically fine. He feels no remorse, and that scares him. Because Alfred’s on the brink of tears and Arthur should feel some remorse, shouldn’t he?
“But we need to talk about these things. We need to communicate. We can’t keep these things under a lock and key, I need to know this is going somewhere. That I’m not ‘ignoring the signs’ like everyone keeps telling me I am- Arthur, I believe in this. Do you?”
Arthur wonders what relationship column Alfred’s read to make him think this way. He wonders if it’s Alfred’s friends again, telling him to stay away from Arthur Kirkland. Arthur thinks ruefully that Alfred ought to have listened to them. “I haven’t got the faintest idea what you’re on about.”
Alfred sighs again. He closes his eyes. His brows furrow, as if there’s a pinching headache between them. “Do… do you trust me?”
Arthur doesn’t lie. “… no.”
And Alfred doesn’t seem to be surprised. His tears, however, threaten to spill over. “Will you ever trust me?”
This is Alfred’s big character flaw. The only fault, it seemed, that he had, in all that beautiful loving body of his. Those big, beautiful, naive eyes. That he was willing to do anything to make this work.
Arthur doesn’t answer because he doesn’t know. But it seemed Alfred got all he needed from Arthur’s silence. He stands up, palms soaking the tears from his eyes. “Arthur, I… I love you. Will you let me help? I want to help, I know I can-”
“You can’t always be a hero. Save yourself the trouble and leave me,” Arthur says. Alfred’s eyes are wide but Arthur’s tone isn’t aggressive. It’s calm. It’s advice. Alfred waits for more but Arthur turns back to his tea so Alfred gets up. He leaves.
Arthur’s face is wet but he doesn’t move. He doesn’t sob. He lets the tears fall onto his lips where they leave a salty aftertaste, and when the taste becomes unbearable, he wipes them away.
He loves the way Alfred’s arms wrap around him. He loves the way his name falls from Alfred’s lips, the way those lips kiss him so sweetly, so gently. He loves Alfred Jones. He loves him when he’s annoying, when he’s loud, when they fight, but he supposes it’s too late to say anything now.
Arthur’s always late. He’s late to cry, he’s late to feel the remorse coursing through his veins. He’s trapped between barriers of his own construction, and he knows there’s something wrong with him. He wants to take a pair of pliers and force himself open, to pull everything out from inside him and put himself in Alfred’s warm, caring hands, because god, he wants to, but he doesn’t trust Alfred Jones. He can’t. He mustn’t. He tells himself that there’s no possible guarantee it can be safe.
So he doesn’t tell Alfred he loves him. He doesn’t do anything because that would make it harder when Alfred finally leaves, finally tires of him. Of course, it’s this vicious cycle of self-preservation that tips the scales, because now, Alfred is gone, and Arthur’s stupid. He’s stupid. He doesn’t deserve a chance at happiness when he can’t stop ruining everything.
Arthur can’t stop hurting Alfred Jones. He can’t give Alfred what he deserves, anything more than their shallow, aimless relationship. The shallow, aimless conversation, kisses, cuddles.
So he does Alfred one last favor and watches him leave.
I Took My Hater Out On A Date (5/7)
(1/7) (2/7) (3/7) (4/7)
Alfred was bullied as a kid.
It was just the usual, of course. They’d called him “braceface”, made fun of the bowl cut his mom insisted made him look adorable, the glasses too big for his face, but it was nothing he ever talked about it because, well, it was nothing. They were children.
He’d grown older, and even before his shoulders broadened, before he joined the football team, everyone was okay with him. Just like that, they’d grown out of it. Nobody gave a damn about braces or glasses in middle school. So Alfred had been bullied, yes, but it was never anything serious.
What it had been was a sort of revelation. It had given him insight into the minds of ex-attackers. The kids who’d made the rude comments when they were younger were always the ones that were nervous around him in class. They laughed at his jokes, they made good company, yes, but they were always so shifty. Alfred chalked it up to the fact that it meant they were guilty.
Applying a similar analysis to Arthur Kirkland, Alfred concluded that Arthur was the same. He was guilty.
It was either that or he had a very, very strong emotion of some different nature. That was as far as Alfred could tell.
“So, final thoughts?” Alfred asked, cautiously, seeing as Arthur looked just about ready to puke any moment now. “Still hate me?”
Arthur blinked. He took a controlled breath, parted his lips as if to say something, then furrowed his brows and shut his mouth. He didn’t speak.
I Took My Hater Out On A Date (1/7)
(2/7) (3/7) (4/7) (5/7)
a/n: Rated T for slight NSFW themes and language.
“Hello everyone, welcome back to my channel.” The man said. “Yes, that’s right, you thought you’d be rid of me when I was quite literally hospitalized only a week ago, but if you didn’t already know, making shitty reaction videos is my job and it’s the only way to pay the bill, so here I am.”
Alfred cracked a smile at that. He scooted up in his bed, rubbing the grogginess out of his eyes as the man continued to assure his viewers that he was alright, “I’m healing very well, don’t worry, that’s all you need to know”, all the typical things. There was nothing special, it seemed. At least, nothing to warrant the swarm of Twitter mentions and messages he’d woken up to. He’d been too tired to read them, but a quick scan told him two things: It was some big British YouTuber called ‘Arthur Kirkland’, and it was imperative that Alfred watched his latest video.
“Now, most of you seemed to take what I had said in my last video seriously- mind you, one that I’d filmed on pain medication.” Arthur huffed out a smile, and Alfred watched, brows rising as screenshots of several different comments popped up on the screen next to Arthur’s head: Have you heard of Alfred Jones?; OMG you and Alfred!; Alfred would be PERFECT!; …
“Look, when I said I had a weird kink for loud Americans in my last video, I wasn’t really expecting you to set me up with the first gay American YouTuber out there-” Arthur then shrugged, “Listen, I’d never heard of this man before in my life, but I’ve checked him out and I have to say… of all the people you could’ve set me up with, you had to give me some obnoxious gamer, didn’t you?”
Oh.
Travel Plans
Arthur plans to fly to France with long time crush and possible soulmate Francis, though he may never make it off the ground. Usuk. Soulmate au. Based on the prompt from @dailyusuk //
In a world where the soulmate stamp on your forearm could be anything, Arthur considered himself to be pretty damn lucky. Stamp images were limitless after all. They were simply a piece of black lineart that correlated in some way to how you met your soulmate. They could be of photorealistic or cartoonish. They could even depict something vulgar or lewd if that happened to be the situation.
Arthur had gotten a good one. His right forearm was decorated with a photorealistic image of the Eiffel Tower, and there was little less romantic than that. Especially when the man he had feelings for was french.
Francis had been in Arthur’s life since his early teens when he moved from France and into Arthur’s neighborhood. They’d fought and hated each other at first, but they were also the only two boys in the neighborhood the same age. As a result, there weren’t a lot of options when Arthur wanted to go somewhere and didn’t want to go alone. By the time they graduated, they could actually be described as friends. Though, Arthur found himself wanting more. He found himself attracted to caramel brown hair and blue eyes, and Francis had both. Was it a coincidence? He’d had these preferences long before he liked or even met Francis. He also liked glasses, and Francis didn’t wear those, but he didn’t expect his soulmate to fit all his preferences anyway.
—————————
FINALLY a victory piece to make up for this one I made 4 years ago.
Congratulations, France!!!
Moving away from the topic of deVailer but onto a semi-related problem plaguing the fandom is what type of fics people consume?
Or, lemme rephrase that. The STATUS of the fics people consume.
Guys, you can’t wait until a fic is finished in order to give it support. I mean…theres nothing stopping you from doing so physically, however as someone who is friends with a writer who has poured her heart and soul into a fic where years and years of plotting and writing have gone into it, only to promote it and have it shoved back in her face that they’ll read it when its finished, I can see just how upsetting this kind if system is.
I’ve pushed this message before just like I will keep adamently pushing it, but I think that fanfic writers who are in the process of writing their chaptered stories need the MOST support. Now, I’m not saying that this means that finished works don’t deserve any love and support. Thats far from what I’m saying because we should CONSTANTLY be engaging with current writers, current artists, WIPs and drabbles and drafts and finished pieces and doodles and ask-blogs and comics. If we don’t our fandom, to put it simply, is going to die.
My message here, though, is to say that its very easy to enjoy finished writing. Its easy to get into it, to binge, to enjoy and then be done with it. And its hard to get into WIPs because each update leaves a new cliffhanger, each update may not come as often as we want it to, and with each update comes the very real possibility of a writer not wishing to continue a fic. But you know what is a surefire way to combat a lot of those fears?
By SUPPORTING THE WRITER! Writing is hard! Writing is a struggle! I consider myself a borderline writer from my USUK side of the fandom bc of how hard it is for me to get motivation to open up a word doc. So to all you people out there, USUK fans or not, who are constantly typing away at those keyboards and producing new things, I want to say that I appreciate you so much. You deserve more likes, reblogs, comments, kudos, favorites, etc., and for every one of those that a finished work gets I believe a work in progress should get the same.
Its so heartbreaking to see how the motivation to continue writing leaves these writers due to the lack of interraction with their works because people would rather read something finished than something still currently being produced. This is why people leave the fandom, guys. Everytime a creator sees you interract with their creations, I 100% assure you they are more motivated to continue what it is they’re doing. They do this for free, and not only do they do it for themselves but they do it in hopes that other people will get enjoyment out of what it is they took time to produce. But if theres no feedback, if it looks like nobody is enjoying their work…its easy to see how the “why bother?” mentality may sink in and harden them to the fandom.
To sort of end things I guess, I’m going to reccomend a few writers that I know from MY little USUK/UKUS niche who still have ongoing works that I urge you to check out. Please feel free to reblog and add more writers/stories to this post; I’m always looking for new people to support.
@rantingfangirl ’s Cross-Life is an EXTREMELY well-written UKUS fic clocking in at about 15 (gloriously long) chapters. Here is the description:
“Given the choice to change his ways or face the consequences, Arthur is propelled from urban England to the American suburbs, putting up with all the drama, pettiness, and idiots that go with it.”
Its slow-burn, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, and has all the delicious drama that comes with any punk-ass British kid in a cold and unloving household. Highly, HIGHLY reccomend checking this one out.
@gallifreyanlibertea ’s I Took My Hater Out On a Date is a witty YouTuber AU in which fan’s attempts at bringing Gamer!Alfred and Reaction-er(?)!Arthur evolves into good-natured publicity stunts, and maybe more? Mana is a very talented writer so if you haven’t already read their work pleaaaase do. Its so, so good.
@not-aph-england actually has 3 that I’d like to reccomend! The first seems to be a smaller but still chaptered fic called Royal Sh*t! Here is the description:
“Peasant Arthur meets Prince Alfred on Tinder. But of course it’s just a catfish. Or is it?” It’s cute, its witty, its everything you’d expect from a Tinder-sprouted romance.
The next is Plan B, an Omegaverse fic:
“Arthur Kirkland’s plan A was to graduate, find a good job, buy his dream house and, yeah, why not?, eventually get married. Unfortunately, once he got pregnant, this plan became a distant dream. He had to replan his life, and now, with a daughter, his Plan B includes making the best with what he has and, definitely, staying away from alphas.”
Last but not least is actually a collaboration RP-turned-fic with @mayumisatosan (I believe) called Life Goes On:
“Alfred and Arthur met at a social event and quickly realized they are quite compatible with each other. What makes their story complicated is the fact that the social event in question was a dinner party exclusively for widows. Oh, and the fact that Arthur is expecting a baby from his deceased mate.”
Finally, this list wouldn’t be complete without the mention of a good friend and writer who, I believe, goes underappreciated in all aspects- even in terms of her finished writings.
@drones-of-innocence ’s The Messenger is a fic three years in the making with plenty of plotting done in advance:
“When Heaven and Hell clash in a pointless war, the wish for a utopia stems from the middle. But since diplomacy would never work, a spy would have to be sent in, one to be a demon but to retain everything that makes him an angel. But what if in the middle of the war, the spy learnt of what’s really happening? What would he do to stop the supremacy and dominion? Angel Demon AU, USUK”
Last but not least, please tell your writers how much you appreciate them. They do this as a labor of love in hopes of making people happy. They truly deserve more support and encouragement because they are what keeps the ever-changing Hetalia fandom active.
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